"There is no friendship without sacrifice."

Some potential good news this morning, but I want it all confirmed before I announce it.



Meanwhile, this rewrite of Faerylander is extraordinarily satisfying.

Most of you know, I hate rewriting.  Always have. I'm always afraid I'm screwing it up by messing with it.  I get the "word-jumble" effect where I seem to lose emotional connection the more I change things, and it's hard for me to tell if one phrasing is better than another.

But for some reason, this rewrite of Faerylander isn't working out that way. I think it's because I'm coming up with solutions -- big ones.

I'm so proud of myself for continuing to work on this book.  I could have accepted the way it was at any time, but instead I had the instincts it could be better.

Last night I thought of a huge change.

Dave Goodman had already suggested that bringing in a character I'd introduced early in the book and using him in the climax was a bit Deux Machina.  So I'd already decided to jettison this.  Cobb is the major protagonist all the way through the book, and it's his battle to win or lose.

But I needed something else to make that last scene work. I'd taken out one solution, so I needed another one.

Last night I found the answer.

It requires that I sacrifice a major character.  The minute I thought it, I realized it was the right answer.  I hate to do it -- I really like this character, and he's in the other two books -- but it has to be done to give the climax a satisfying resolution that means something.

The theme of this book is "friendship."  There is no friendship without sacrifice.

(A little late in the game to be figuring out the theme of the book, but hey, it was there all along, I just wasn't quite seeing it.  Now I need to play it up.)

It will mean rewriting both Wolflander and Ghostlander (though I think I have a nifty solution of lifting up a different character to take the place of the sacrificed character.)

I love it when the plot comes together.